Sunday dinner….jumping….cook slow or cook fast.

The trampoline is our usual Sunday appetizer these days. Family dinner night. We jump and jump. The girls never get enough. I pop off for a minute, throw something in the oven, and then it is back to jumping. We just keep jumping. You can’t not smile when you are jumping. Try it and see. Spring. Sunday. My night with the girls. Keep jumping.

I have two ways of cooking. Really slow or really fast. Both take the same amount of time though. I either spend ten minutes getting something in the oven and then have an hour or two to play, pull weeds in the garden, jump some more,, whatever. Then it is five minutes to put out the meal. That is the slow way. Fast way is just 15 minutes start to finish without stopping. Slow way might be a roast chicken or some braised pork. Fast way might be some salmon with greens and kimchi. Either way it is about 15 minutes of cooking. Plenty of time left over for jumping.

I used to preach to make time to cook. Turn off the TV. Give up Facebook and Twitter. Spend all your free time cooking. It is for the health of yourself and your family. Don’t you care about your kids? This worked about as well as you would imagine. So I gave in a bit. Okay, I get it. You don’t have time to cook. You are too busy. Yes. Yes. I am too. Solution? Cook slow or cook fast. But cook something. Make time to jump.

The girls are outside screaming and laughing as I check on my chicken. This feels good. House smells like Sunday. My night with the girls. My night to make dinner. Actually, I make family dinner every night…but for another family. That is my job. My 9 to 5. Except it is 2 to 10. So, Sunday is all we have. Me and my girls. Yes, there are Mondays but I don’t cook dinner on Mondays. Let someone else cook for us. I give myself that once a week. Mondays are out. But, Sundays we eat good. We experiment. Sometimes we make videos but usually we cook just for us. Don’t plan it much. Just get some ingredients and cook. This is when cooking gets fun. No recipes, no videos, no packages. Just your ingredients and your technique. This is where you want to be. This is when you can really cook. Insert image of Italian Grandma here. Family dinner.

Kitchen chalkboard. I look at it 20 times a day at least. Need constant reminders. Trying to be a good parent…a good person. Not going to be Superdad I realize, but, finding my balance. Those Sunday dinners always seem to pull us together. Or at least me. I get lost in the week. All over the place. Thoughts, life, no thoughts, work, seek, try, let go, and start over. I question everything. Mostly myself. By Saturday night I am a mess. I need Sunday. Sunday it all makes sense again. Family dinner. Jumping. Cook with my kids. Cook for my kids. Cook for me. Learn and teach. Jump some more….

You don’t even have to be gluten-free to really get something from this book.
I love it. I love these people. If you do live a gluten-free lifestyle even better. This is for you. This is for your next family dinner.